Bonny Doon Ca del Solo Malvasia Bianca 2004

It is so hard to pigeonhole teenagers. One instant they are cuddly and adorable, and the next moment they have discovered Gandhi or macrobiotics or something and are imposing upon themselves the most rigid, though yes, admirable austerities. Just when you think they might become responsible adults, they again metamorphose into lush softies.
In the long, hot summer of her 15th year, as the horse latitudes extended into Monterey County, little Malvasia has acquired something of a plush, languorous, equatorial quality courtesy of slightly higher alcohol and touch less acidity than normal. It is a style of wine well suited to exotically aromatized foods, like Morrocan, Lebanese, Greek or Indian cuisine.
If structurally the wine is a departure, the familiar flavor signifiers are all there to remind one of the changeling in one's glass: pink grapefruit, litchi and pear along with the vaguest, reposeinducing suggestion of candied ginger.